


William and the Unexpected Love Interest

by abbichicken



Category: Just William - Richmal Crompton
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Friendship, Futurefic, Silly, Yuletide Madness, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:45:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbichicken/pseuds/abbichicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the excellent prompt:</p><p>" Futurefic in which Ginger (or another Outlaw) finds that an older Violet Elizabeth’s big eyes and golden curls are really not all that obnoxious at all, to William’s horror (or jealousy?) Or vice versa…"</p>
            </blockquote>





	William and the Unexpected Love Interest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KannaOphelia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KannaOphelia/gifts).



> Hello there, dear recipient! I only found your letter at the last minute right now on Christmas Day as I was looking for a little treat to write, and oh, I loved your prompts! I'd love to have done all of them (hey, I may yet one day!) but I hope this, for now, brings a bit of fun to your Yuletide. Many thanks for such a fun idea, and for requesting one of my very favourites!

"I say," Ginger said, as he and William scuffed their way through the lane, frozen in patches, but still muddy beneath, "have you seen?"

"Course I've seen!" William said, as if Ginger was quite mad. "I've got eyes, haven't I? I've seen all sorts of things! Not now of course..." It was a dark December evening, and the moon was blanketed behind thick cloud. The glow of the streetlights back up at the road didn't stretch far down the lane, and they were headed into almost complete darkness.

"No," Ginger exasperated, "I'm not talking about eyes, I'm talking about _her_."

"The cat's mother?"

"No, that's _she_. And you haven't even got a cat, so stop talking about cats. _She_ 's the cat's mother. _Her_ is Violet Elizabeth!"

"Oh, her," William muttered, darkly. "What d'you want to go on about seeing her for?"

"Well..." Ginger said, and then stopped, both speaking and walking. "It's...you know...she went to that school..."

"In Andromeda?" William asked.

"In Switzerland."

"That's what I said," said William, itching to get moving again and wondering what on earth this was all about.

"Andromeda isn't a...oh, never mind. Anyway. You know she went to that school last year..."

"You just said that!"

"Well, anyway. She's come back home for Christmas."

"What did she - sorry, _her_ \- want to go and come back for?" William kicked at the ground in irritation. "I've had about enough of girls after _Pepper_..."

Ginger did his best to pull a sympathetic face. It had been a very difficult time. Pepper Johnson had appeared to be everything William was lacking - clever, kind, strong, and packed to the brim with what many adults around them referred to as 'good common sense'. Unfortunately, her family had decided that such good common sense was wasted on the village that was home to William and the Outlaws, and they had decided to go off and start 'a new life' in America at the summer's end.

",,,don't know what a newlife means..." William was muttering, descending into the loop that had occupied many of their autumn evenings,. "She already had a really good life here. I gave her bullseyes and everything!"

Since William had started working full-time as the sweetshop assistant, there had been a not-that-surprising run on bullseyes, and they seemed to 'disappear' quite regularly from their glass jar. However, Mr. Marsh, the shopkeeper, had long since decided to turn a blind eye to the situation because, against all odds and likelihoods, William had turned out to be surprisingly good at the job. It was hard to say whether it was his sheer enthusiasm for sweets themselves that did it, or the fact that he'd argued for a discount system for the under tens that had led to a surge in children queueing up to exchange their pocket money for confections of all shapes and sizes, but the fact was unarguable: William was exactly as good a sweetshop boy as he'd always said he would be.

"Still," Ginger said, interrupting the bemoaning of the forced disappearance of Pepper, because his matter really was more pressing, "Violet Elizabeth."

"You still goin' on about her?"

"You haven't seen her!"

"What's to see? The last thing I'd want to see is her annoying old face around. She'd just come down to the shop and try and clean it or something, or put flowers in it, or get me to give her half price liq'rice allsorts."

"Mmmm..." Ginger said, as if unconvinced. "The thing is...she's different."

"Different?

They both, as if agreed, began to trudge onwards once more, in steady, familiar step with each other. They were headed home after a long day at work, William at the sweetshop, and Ginger at the greengrocer's. William had half a dozen bullseyes in a paper bag in his overall pocket, and Ginger a carrier bag of badly bruised apples. In days gone by, this would have made for an evening's feasting, likely in the back of the old barn, but now, much to the Outlaws' disgust and disbelief, the barn had been bought by the young architect Miss Glenshaw, and converted into, as she called it, 'a lovely modern place, in the Scandinavian style'. With its walls replaced by great sheets of greyish glass, white wooden decking along the the front instead of muddy troughs, and a completely re-tiled roof complete with skylight, the Outlaws had found themselves in agreement with much of the local community when they declared it 'an eyesore'. However, Miss Glenshaw's generous donation to the fund to restore the stained glass windows in the church hall seemed to have mysteriously soothed many of the objections. Regardless, the Old Barn was no longer home to the Outlaws and, in a way, the Outlaws had given up on needing a home at all.

Henry had left to study Latin at Cambridge University that September, and wouldn't be coming home this Christmas at all, so his little sister Claire had told them. Douglas was in the Lake District apprenticing an uncle who ran a parts business, whatever that might have been. Whatever it was, he couldn't afford a train home and had sent a very critical letter back apologising for his absence, but hoping everyone was quite well. Needless to say, both William and Ginger were wholly unimpressed with their friends, who, they felt, had rather abandoned them, for not much. It had been a bit of a theme this year. Still, they had resolved, they would have a very Merry Christmas themselves, thanks very much. Thus they'd been hoarding their work spoils for the day itself, which, they hoped, would be spent eating, for the first time, just precisely as much as they wanted.

"She's sort of...different," Ginger said, and, realising that he was simply repeating himself now, he made a couple of sounds as he fought for more descriptive words. "She's...older."

"Well that's what comes of time, isn't it? Gettin' older. We've all gotten older. Be funny if we'd all got older, and she was still just fifteen, wouldn't it?"

"But I mean, she's grown up now."

"Course she has! Because of the gettin' older. Really, Ginger, all the cold must've gone to your head or somethin'."

"But she's really...she's quite...she's...reallyquitebeautifulnow," Ginger said, all in a breath, and then bit his tongue, as if he might have said something wrong."

William took a second to establish what had been said was what had actually been said, and then he rounded on Ginger, just to check. "Violet Elizabeth Bott? Of The Hall? Beautiful?"

"She's...well, yes. Her hair does this sort of...thing. And her eyes are kind of...you know."

"Oh well, in that case," William said, as if he understood everything now, "in that case, she must be. With her sort-of hair and her you-know eyes."

"Oh, put a sock in it," Ginger said. "I was just sayin'."

"Probably because you've spent all that time lookin' at onions, you've got all confused about what beautiful is. You're just not used to seeing girls, that's all it is."

"No...no, it isn't that. William, I'm serious. I think...I think I might be in love with her. With Violet Elizabeth. Bott. Of The Hall."

William nodded, slowly, because Ginger was using a tone of voice that was only ever used for extremely serious things indeed, like when it was announced that the circus wouldn't be coming that year, or when he was worried that Hector's new girlfriend might be pregnant, (but it had simply turned out that the Sunday roast didn't agree with her).

"Well, what you goin' to do about it?" William said, after they'd both muddied themselves and lost two bullseyes and half a dozen apples to the dirt in a scuffle designed to let Ginger know that this was really all very out of line, him finding Violet Elizabeth, scourge of so many of William's childhood plans, to be beautiful.

"Do about it?"

"You should ask her to dance, or somethin'."

"Dance?"

"Well, that's what they do in Andromeda, isn't it?"

"What d'you keep callin' it Andromeda for? It's Switzerland."

"'S all Greek to me," William said, "anyway, they dance up there. All speshul sort of dancin'. You'll have to be able to dance, if you want her to like you."

"But you remember those awful dance lessons...come on, surely there's something else..."

"No, it's got to be dancin'. Or French. Can you speak French?"

"You know I failed French."

"I thought that was because of that caterpillar that got out in the exam and then you got thrown out tryin' to put it back in the box."

"I don't think I would have passed even if Archibald hadn't done that..." Ginger said, wistfully. Poor Archibald.

"Dancin' it is then. It'll be easy. Come on. I've done dancin'. I had classes."

"She's not goin' to want to do ballet with me."

"Other classes! Besides, I've seen it at the pictures. You just need to point your toes a bit and sort of hold onto her..." William tried to demonstrate in the dark, but lost his footing on a patch of ice and skidded into an ungraceful heap on the floor. He hopped back up, and dusted himself off as if it hadn't happened, but he could feel a nasty bruise coming on his leg. These things never hurt so much when he was eleven, he thought, a touch ruefully.

"Just like that?" Ginger said, with a bit of a giggle to his voice.

"You shut up," William said. "Anyway, I'm goin' home for tea now. Tomorrow we'll go by the hall in the mornin' and you can show me just how beautiful she's got, and then you can go and ask her to dance with you."

"Just like that?" Ginger repeated, this time without a hint of giggle to his voice.

"Just like that," William said. "It'll be fine." He put his finger and thumb to his lips and let out a long, low whistle. "Jumble!"

He didn't dash quite like he had done, but Jumble still loped up to greet William every day, excitable as always. Dog and master greeted each other warmly, and Ginger, realising there was nothing further to gain from conversation, left with a 'see you tomorrow!'

Tomorrow was Sunday, and it was a bright one, crisp and even, with the sun high in the sky by eleven o'clock, when Ginger had extricated himself from family duties, and met William at the gate of the drive to The Hall. Ginger had the look about him of one who has not slept at all, for worrying about something rather complicated.

"William, what if she...what if she laughs at me?"

"You're worryin' about Violet Elizabeth laughin' at you?"

"I told you, she's diff'r'nt now! And I'm just the grocer's boy."

"And she'd be lucky to have you!" William said, giving Ginger a clap on the back that was intended to inspire, but actually slightly winded him.

Just then, a familiar voice rang out, its vowels a little more rounded, but its lisp thoroughly intact. "William! Ginger! Ith tho _good_ to thee you!" A vision with long, leaping curls, wearing a bright, shiny, purple dress was running with considerable speed and might towards them, from the direction of the house. She flung herself, full tilt, at William and Ginger, who caught the vision rather breathlessly, and found themselves both being kissed quite fully on each cheek.

"Well!" said William, between surprise and affronted. "Hullo!"

"Oh _William_! And Ginger! Ooo, hellooooo!" She seemed genuinely thrilled.

"Dun't seem much diff'r'nt to me..." William muttered, _sotto voce_ , although, with a second look, he could sort of, sort of see Ginger's point. Gone was the girlish pout, and the wobbling threat of suspicion. Gone too were the ribbon bows in the corkscrew curls. This Violet Elizabeth was, indeed, older. Taller. A different sort of shape. With, sort of, hair, and...eyes. Still. William definitely didn't want to dance with her.

"How's the theweethop, William?"

"It's very good," William said, politely. "Want a bullseye?"

"Ooo yeth!" Violet Elizabeth said, holding out her hand enthusiasically. William handed her one, and she popped it straight into her mouth.

"I work at the greengrocer's," Ginger said, filling the silent space.

Violet Elizabeth crunched right through the bullseye, and William and Ginger's eyes went wide, for that was an unusually testing skill. She crunched it right down, swallowed, and then licked her lips. "Delithious! Thatth nice, Ginger. Do you get free onions?"

"Er...sometimes..." Ginger said. "And apples. If they're bruised."

"Lucky you!" Violet Elizabeth said, and she gave Ginger another hug. Ginger stood there, stiff as a board, and a touch confused.

"Did they...did you...how's school?"

"Ith _lovely_!" Violet Elizabeth said, with high excitement. "I really, really love it! I don't like the elocuthion very much, but everything elth ith wonderful! I can thki, did you hear? Can you thki?"

"I...er...no..." Ginger said, rather at a loss. "Elocution?"

"Yes," said Violet Elizabeth with an unexpectedly perfect 's', "they told me over and over again how they thaid you're thpothed to do it, but I didn't like the way I thounded at all. It wathn't me, and ith ever tho difficult you know, Ginger. Tho I just do it when the mithrethes are there and they think I'm ever tho good."

"That's very...er..." Ginger looked at William, who looked like he didn't want to be there at all at the moment.

"Now William!" Violet Elizabeth said, brightly. "I've got a very important quethtion to athk you. Very important! I hope you won't let me down..."

William's heart sank. Surely, surely, nothing good could come of this.

"We're having a danth here at the hall on New Yearth Eve, and I tho hope you can come? Mummy and Daddy would jutht love to see you, and I'm thure you're a very good danther now, aren't you?"

"Erm..." William said.

Ginger looked like he might be sick.

"Now," Violet Elizabeth continued, "Thith ith Cordelia Nibblett!" She was gesturing towards another figure who'd appeared from the distant house, and was strolling demurely down towards them in the sunshine. "Thee's my betht friend from thchool, and thee's thtaying with uth for the holidayth, and William, I'd jutht love it if you'd take her to the Danth! Thee'th tho been looking forward to meeting you!"

"...oh." William exhaled, and turned rather pink. Cordelia Nibblett had approached. She had short, neat, dark hair, large, dark eyes, and she wore a very chic, very fitted navy coat, with very grown-up, beautifully polished shoes. She raised a single eyebrow at William, and one corner of her lips turned upwards in a coy smile, to match. She was, without question, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, William Brown," she said, in a rich accent that William could not yet place. She held out a hand, and he pinched it slightly and bowed at the same time, confused and having forgotten whether to shake, kiss, or hold the proffered hand of a beautiful woman to make the best impression.

Cordelia Nibblett laughed, and put both hands on his shoulders, then kissed him smartly on both cheeks. "Oh Violet!" she said, "He's just as funny as you said!"

"And Ginger?" Violet Elizabeth said, with a curious brightness to her voice.

"Yes?" Ginger said, wondering what on earth was coming next.

"I was wondering if you'd like to come to the New Year's Danth...with me?"

"Oh. Yes. Very Much. Thank you yes I would." Ginger took his turn to sort of bow, and shot a look of _help what's happening_ to William. But William wasn't looking. He only had eyes for Cordelia Nibblett.


End file.
